How many photos do you usually get out of a photoshoot?

Hello~
For me it just depends, if its a place i wont go to again but once a year (like for anime conventions) 10-20+
If its somewhere I go to a lot then 5-10+

 

I just did a photoshoot today in which I took 99 shots. 5 of them made it into a gallery thread, and the rest were deleted. That's about how it usually goes for me. I try my best to make every shot a good one, but because I know that many of them WON'T be any good, I purposely take a LOT. I figure the more pictures taken, the higher the chances of coming out with a good one.

 

I am a perfectionist and though I use to take about 50-60 photos each time I am on a phohtoshoot, I really use around 9 or 10 out of them. But I do not regret this thing, because it is how things usually work.

 

I usually take around 150-300 images and then only choose 2-5 out of all of that!

 

It varies greatly from shoot to shoot. I've been into photography for quite some years, been going courses and been hired as a photographer, but even so, I have never been able to fill my memory card at just one shoot. When I take my photos I have a distinct feeling or vision of how I want the picture, and depending on how it works out, sometimes it's enough with just one-two shots. Though I usually prefer two or three, even if I'm sure the first one was okay, since there can be small differences in focus or lightning or bending grass or whatnot. There's no such feeling of honest sadness, as when you discover that that perfect photo that you took, turns out to have one major flaw when it's uploaded on the computer and looked at in high resolution :C

Considering my BJDs I usually take a crap load of photos, perhaps 60?, and then I upload one. Or perhaps two. It's strange, since I love seeing other people's major photoshoots of plenty of pictures and more, but for me, I'm only able to upload one or two, then I'm scared I bore people, haha xD

 

I'm by no means a photographer, but I'm practicing. One shoot I did of my own doll, I got 7 shots I dearly loved-- out of a little more than 70. The other shoots I've done, maybe 4? It depends by lighting, if a wig falls off, scenery, etc.

If it's a meet-up, I'll post as many as were taken that's not repetitive. But those I'm more capturing the fun experience more than the artistic side. I'm way more liberal about posting con/meet-up pictures than I am with my own, personal shoots.

 

For every shot I usually do about 200-300 photos and choose only about 30-40) I love it when there is a great choice for the best shots)

 

it really depends on the setting of the shoot and the general purpose
if it's during night time without a tripod, maybe 1/3 is usable, but since i take numerous shots of the same pose under the same light i would end up have maybe 3 copies of very similarly posed, composed photos and i would pick one that is the best

if it's a shot during day time or night time with tripod (so that i can use long exposure), most of the photos will be in focus and i will pick ones that have the best lighting and composition.

though it's much easier to have a photo shoot during day time but i really love how hot lighting in a darker environment could bring real sense of drama into the lighting. it's great if you are doing a darker shoot but have a friend who can help to hold a reflecting panel to make up for the terrible lighting.

 

I take anywhere from about 50 - 130 and get 3 - 4 that I actually like enough to use.

 

I usually take around 60 pictures, and on average I get about 5 images I really like. Sometimes I'll only get one or two, others I'll get upwards of ten!

 

I take about a hundred myself, and once it gets to editing, about 10 if I'm lucky, it may be me being picky though.

 

It depends the way I'm shooting...
If I only shoot with my camera, I'll keep 2 to max 5% of the photos I take.
If I shoot with my camera connected to a bigger screen (my PC) I'll shoot really less and keep 90% of the photos.

 

when i take the face up picture, it only go out for 5+. at the usual time it will be less than 10 photos, not to much.
but if i took it as a series way, maybe will take more than 20

 

I tend to take around 60 photos per photoshoot. I get anywhere between 2 and 10 pictures I like and choose to edit when I load them onto my computer.

 

I collect analogue cameras and love taking analogue and instant photos so I when I'm using my digital camera for doll photos I find it hard to get out of the habit of only taking a few photos, spending longer on each one. I'm taking more and more but definitely no where near 70 or even 20 in some cases. I think I'd probably get much better pictures if I did!

 

It's really funny that way 50 pick maybe 10 photos

 

I use 20% max of the photos I take. When I'm shooting madly away on vacation or something it drops to about 5%

 

I only ever intend to get 1 final photo from a shoot because i like my flickr stream to be varied. BUT to get that shot i can take anywhere between 5 and 50 photos! depending on poses/light/settings. Sometimes i get lucky, and sometimes i shoot the same scene in 4 different places to try different light sources.
The more i take, the harder it is to choose the final 1 though! On average, i probably take 20. If i can't choose just 1, i put one on my flickr and one on my fb, for variety.

 

I shoot indoors in controlled, still life conditions. I generally have a clear idea of the image I want to produce, to the extent that I might have already drawn a preliminary sketch of it, so set up my stuff, lights and settings to produce that. I then take a couple of test shots, which I preview on camera. I make minor adjustments to settings, pose or light based on these, then I take the final shot. So, unless I have really ballsed up my initial guess at the correct placement, light and settings, I might take 3-4 shots for each final image.

I do sometimes just grab a doll and just mess about, seeing what comes up. That is rare, and I might take 20 shots for 4-5 useable.

It is just a matter of taste and situation. I would take more shots and throw away a larger percentage if I were shooting outdoors, with many uncontrollable factors. But I don't shoot outdoors, except at meets.

 

It really depends on what I want to use them for.
I usually save all pictures but will only use about 5% for uploads in threads/tumblr/whatever.
The rest are
reference material (joints, hands, box opening details I don't use in the actual BO but which might be important later, ...),
tryout pictures (clothes, eyes, wigs, different styles or cosplay, posing, ...),
face-up pictures (if I want to re-do them like they were before but might forget details)
group pictures (for scale comparison, posing comparison and for documenting my groups development).

 

Hehe, same here ! I probably take between 50 and 100 pics during a photoshoot. Keep and edit maybe 5, then only upload 1 or 2 as I don't want to bore people. Sometimes choice is hard, I ask for advice to my boyfriend about the one he would choose, then I upload the other one

I always keep the raw pics of each shooting (well, obviously deleting blurred ones), because I think one can always progress on editing, and sometimes I come back on those and find some unseen potential

 

I tend to take between 30 to 70 photos per shoot, from which I will choose 1 photo to be the final photo. Generally speaking I only want to create one photo from any shoot. I think that allows me to distill the concept into its most pure form.

Of course there have been times where I take far more photos and times where I take far less. I took around 125 photos for this year's photography contest entry, but I wanted to get certain details as close as possible and my computer (where the reference photo was) was in another room. So that meant memorizing certain points, tweaking my doll, taking a few photos, checking them against the original, and repeating.

On the other end of the spectrum, I had an idea for a photo which I called "Buttons" and I took 4 shots and one was it. I love it when the end result matches the concept in my head so beautifully, but I have found it to be a much more rare experience.

 

In one photo shoot I take 50~ 150 pictures I only choose 1 or 2 I always find faults in my photos when I finish and retaking photos is what I hate so I just take as much as I can in one shot so I won't be dissatisfied and reshoot

 

Im pretty sure everyone experiences this. Not just in doll photography either. I know my cosplay photos are the worst. 50 photos later and only 15 are usable.

 

I take tons, like 50 to 100, then downselect to a very few (like 25% of those), delete the rest, clean images if needed, only upload a few like up to 5 images, and end up only posting like a couple at a time.

As I have gotten better I find I have more usable images, but I still take boatloads of images and delete the majority of them.

 

It takes time and practice. Just don't give up and don't expect perfection too fast, that's all. I'm a photographer by trade now and I have a pretty high keep rate when I am really putting some effort into it and not just lazily snapping a pic of a doll sitting on my bed. I wasn't always like this though. I watched a lot of videos, read a lot of books, worked with two teachers, took some classes, joined a few photo clubs. It took years before I was confident enough to open up my own business. Practice is very important with photography, but so is the willingness to learn. There are paid photo seminars, CreativeLive, Lynda, Kelby, offer some of the best, but there are a lot of tutorials on You Tube and that too that are free and of course there's always your local library.

In an episode of CI one of my favorite fictional detectives Robert Goren says his greatest investigative tool is his library card. It made me laugh to hear that, but you know it's true. We live in an age of excellent libraries and the internet. There's nothing you can't learn, can't find to help you learn if you really want to, so take advantage of that, of all those resources, and don't be too hard on yourself. Photography, many people think it's all about the tech, and to a certain point that is true. Reading your manual, learning to properly use your camera it is very important, but it's more about the way you see things, light, composition, mood, stuff like that. The more you learn about that the better you will get and the better your dolls will look. You don't need the most expensive camera and props out there to make great shots. You just need to learn HOW to use the camera you can afford.

 

Even with indoor shoots under controlled conditions, I take several shots from slightly different angles so I can decide what I like best. Outdoors or more casual shoots, I probably take at least 50-60 photos minimum and get maybe ten or fifteen I want to use. I like photos to look not too obviously posed/staged, so I'm pretty picky.

 

For me, there isn't one answer to that question.
If I have my lights and background set up so that
all I need to do is pose my doll, point the camera
at it and s hoot I usually take 3 and all will be good.
If I'm playing with creative lighting set ups or doing
a photo story or shooting multiple dolls I'll take 50
or more in a session intending to use 4-6.

 

Man, everyone here is pretty good with their ratios actually, or I'm just really bad.

I've found it partially depends on the doll. With my Ruan, my normal ratio seems to be around 1:30.

With my Apple... well... I don't even want to talk about it.

I did a couple of quick snaps for her profile, but the single image I've posted of her outside of that, it took me 161 photos... RIP.

 

I usually take 40-50 photos and find that I like 5 or so out of all of that, which is normal :P I definitely take multiple shots of a single pose in case some came out blurry which happens a lot. I'm only an amateur but I love it so much

 

It's a Goldilocks situation--sometimes too many to post, sometimes none at all, and sometimes just the right amount!

 

I usually get 3-5 out of 20+...but the quality of phone's camera is bad, I am going to buy a professional camera for taking photos for my dolls.

 

two or three

 

I take 3 -5 usually. The more you practice the better you get. I don't think there is a right number and experimenting is fun.

 

Hmm it depends on the shoot and where it's at.

 

I actually usually like most of my dolls pictures, BUT I don't like to have the same photoshoot posted over and over again so I usually only upload one in each sns. This said, knowing you wont use many photos does make you become more conscious of taking one that looks really good, you see one and like it for "this" and the other that you like for "that" and try to make one that have both points blended... Of course is not always possible, but we try our best, right?
Since the doll doesn't move I always take it and check to see what I like or not before taking the next one, is not moving so there is no point in take one after other blindly (Unless I'm trying to take one with something that does move around the doll).

 

I've had it be a couple different ways. Sometimes I'll take around 70 - 100 photos and have 1 out of 10 be really good and then other times I'll take 20 - 30 photos and 1 or none at all turn out good. As many have said already, it isn't always the shot you think will turn out great that does. And a friend has told me that one of the keys to getting a good photo is to take a whole bunch of them.

 

maybe around 3 for every 10-20, but I only take photos when I feel that everything looks right with my dolls, so I spend more time primping than shooting, and getting (or waiting) for correct lighting.

 

I think I fall in line with a majority of the folks in here. I don't have any BJDs yet, but I've done a lot of photography of various subjects and tend to take hundreds of photos in a day or on a trip. Then I only tend to post/upload about 10% of them, sometimes less. So 6 out of 60, 10 out of 100, etc. The slightest tremor, or shift in position can make or break your photo.

 

It really depends. Sometimes my camera settings are not right for the situation and i don't notice it so i end up taking over 100 unusable photos.
Usually I take about 100 to 400 photos per photoshoot and it depends how many i want to use. Most of the photos are usable, but i might end up not liking any of them or only one or two.

 

Film is digital now! Waste it! Take different angles of your doll, take three shots of your doll’s face instead of one so you can choose the one that’s not slightly shaky because the camera reacted to your breathing at the wrong moment, and pick a couple of the best to share. Your viewer really doesn’t want to see 20 of the same pose, so it’s better that you have a lot of different shots to choose from and expect only a few to be phenomenal.

 

I almost always go into a shoot with the goal of getting one shot that I love. Usually I end up taking somewhere between 40 and 50 photos in a shoot and then pick three or four that I like. I typically microadjust between shots, so the variations are slight, but I find I get better and more interesting shots with that method. I don't stop taking photos until I get one that seems perfect, so I almost always use my last photo as my keystone for the set. Once I've got the few that I like, I edit them and delete the rejects.

 

I’m usually getting the same percentage of good quality photos as well! Coming from the position of someone who also photographs a rambunctious puppy, you just gotta point and shoot, and hope for a miracle! Lol!

 

Reading through I feel like I'm doing something wrong ^^; When I go out on a serious photoshoot I have a 30% waste only, maybe less, then again I do take my sweet time in the viewfinder...
But I can come up with a quick one shot in a manner of 3-5 shots at it...
If I have a shaky hand day and don't have a tripod with me it's more because I set the camera for multiply shooting too. That's when I get into the 60% waste ratio. D:

 

Out of 50-100 pictures I usually have 2-5 pictures. But it depends. Sometimes there are days with good lights and hair, sometimes all photos look weird or you just posed doll wrong and you can't use any photo

 

This is me also I generally take about 100 photos and end up choosing 6 if I'm lucky just because I'm picky or sometimes they just turn out blurry. I hate when you take photos and they look nothing like how you have seen the doll. Like you look at the pose and hair and its all perfect then you take a photo and it doesn't reflect what you see haha.

 

oh my)) usually It takes 100 photos, but I post to Insta maybe 2-3)

 

If I'm lucky, I'll keep one photo out of 20/30.

I don't know if it has anything to do with photography skill. Sometimes, what we see and what the camera sees are just totally different.

 

Haha, yeah I usually take around 40 photos and only 5 are decent and out of those pictures. The one best of out of the top 5 I pop on my fb page ! (You can find my fb page linked below :P ).
I suppose it comes to standards to what looks good or not because I'm always making slight adjustments Eg: getting the angle right, posing the dolls so the pose looks natural/less awkward, moving props slightly etc.
Hahah :P I suppose no one ever sees the amount of dud photos one takes so I think the large number of photos to get that one perfect shot is to be expected